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27 May 2014

Membership Complete (DAR)

My DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) membership journey is complete. I was inducted last week during the May meeting, which was a sort of end of the year luncheon. Getting to this point took quite a while, though mainly due to my own procrastination.

I first considered joining back in November of 2009 on a completely different line than I ended up joining on. But, once I contacted the local DAR chapter, it only took about 6 months to hand in my documents, have the application completed, signed, sent off and accepted. I still seems like a long time, but in that time period I was able to attend meetings and get to know a bit more about the local chapter. When I got my membership number (and access to more of the website), as well as the chapter newsletter, I felt like I had access to more information. But I still feel like there's more to learn. They have a lot of information online, but at the same time, it's about the organization, while the activities really take place at a chapter level. And the local chapter's website is very cookie cutter.

The next meeting isn't until September. During the last meeting the officer positions changed, so I assume that they take the summer to learn about their jobs and plan for the upcoming year. I'm taking the time to work on a project under the Genealogical Records committee, which is an online indexing program. The current project, BookSync, is very simple and involves taking previously indexed records and attaching them electronically to the correct page (skipping pages with non-indexed material) and tagging Family Bibles for special recognition. If you do a certain amount of pages, you are eligible to purchase a pin to wear in recognition.

And that brings me to the topic of pins. There are tons of them, some available to anyone, such as chapter and ancestor bars, some to identify positions held, such as Regent, some to identify achievements, such as the BookWorm pin for indexing, and others to show financial contributions. But they are a bit pricey and can only be worn during official DAR functions. I think they would be nice to have, but that I wouldn't be able to wear them often (and I'm still confused on the dress code). I'd estimate that only about 1/3 or fewer members wear them at meetings. If you are a member - what are your thoughts on pins?

But pins aren't the reason I decided to join the DAR. I had two goals in mind: 1. to see if my research held up to their standards; 2. to get involved in something and be more social. I'm looking forward to next September and hope to get involved in a committee or two. Hopefully I'll get a lot out of my membership.

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